Athens Acropolis, Athens

A visit to Athens without seeing the Acropolis would be incomplete. Although the Acropolis is quite a crowded tourist destination, it's a must see! I felt that only in that place I could really comprehend the very soul of Athens, what it was back then and what it is now. Not surprising that the Acropolis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Most of the major temples were built and rebuilt under the leadership of Pericles during the golden age of Athens from 460 through 430 B.C. It takes half a day minimum to visit them all, not including picture taking. I was totally fascinated by this ancient, well preserved and restored city within a city.

To name just a few highlights: the Parthenon, the old temple of Athena, the Erechtheon, the Nike temple...and there's so much more.

I was lucky with the weather as it was not too hot when I climbed and walked around. Although the Acropolis (as its name indicates) is a city in an elevated location (with good views of Athens and the Plaka), it is fortunately not in a high enough place to make acrophobics feel uncomfortable visiting it. Or so I heard.

The acropolis opened at 8am. We got an arranged cruise ship tour to take us there and we arrived soon after 8am and had the place to ourselves. It's really worth getting up early and going asap. When we came away the place was packed and all the chaps selling tat had turned up.

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The Acropolis of Athens is the heart and soul of Athens: its name means city on the extremity and the reason is quite simple. This ancient citadel is located on top of a 150 metres tall hill overlooking the city. On the Acropolis flat-top rocky surface you can visit 21 historical sites from old Greek times, the most prominent of which is the Parthenon.

The Parthenon is a temple that was dedicated to the Goddess Athena, the patroness of the city and was once home to a giant statue of her. The temple, through the centuries, was looted several times and had many uses: first it became a Christian church, then it was converted into a mosque and then, thanks to the Venetians in the 17th century, a powder magazine. When the powder exploded, the roof and many columns collapsed, while many sculptures either disappeared or were sold.

Restoration works are underway and hopefully the temple will soon be brought back to former splendour

The Temple of Athena Nike stood is a small Ionic temple that stands right on to of the Acropolis and which can be seen from all over Athens. This is very significant because Nike means "victory" in Greek, and Athena was worshiped in this form – the fact that it could be seen from everywhere meant that any Athenian people could worship the goddess of victory anywhere and at any time.

This temple, which was built over an earlier dedicated to Athena which had been demolished by the Persians, began around 427 BC and took a long time to complete because of unrest and lack of funds. But when it was completed, it remained untouched for a very long time, until the Turks demolished it in 1686 and used the stones to build a bastion next to the Propylaia. The temple as we see it today, therefore, is the consequence of major restoration works, which tore down the bastion and reassembled the temple.

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The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre located on south western side of the Acropolis: it dates back to 161 AD and it was built by Herodes Atticus. Herodes Atticus was a rich Greek aristocrat who served as a Roman Senator and a Sophist. He built this theatre in memory of his wife Aspasia Annia Regilla (who he probably killed). The name Odeon means “small theater" in Greek, but this theatre was by no means small, as it could seat 5000 people.

This theatre, which once had a wooden roof, is well-known for its excellent acoustic – and for this reason it is still used today as the venue of the Athens Festival. One should note that, despite the restoration, the stage and the audience section are the original ones.

What?

An Acropolis temple dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess of Athens. It's also probably at the centre of the most controversial issues in archaeology and conservation - the question of the Elgin marbles and their rightful place.

History

The temple was started in 447BC and completed, including all decorations, in 432BC (which is much quicker than some works in the modern world would take!). Like few other buildings, Parthenon traces the history of religions. With the rise of Christianity in the region, the Athena temple became a church dedicated to Virgin Mary. Which was quite suitable, given that the name Parthenon translates from ancient Greek as 'virgin's apartments'. When Ottomans conquered the territory, it - predictably - became a mosque, complete with a minaret.

Destruction of Parthenon

In 1687, the Venetian army was bombarding the city, and an ammunition depot - housed in the Parthenon by the Ottomans - has exploded, damaging both the building and the sculptures. Some of these sculptures were later removed by Lord Elgin to be placed in the British Museum.

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Even if you arrived in Athens without knowing what akropolis is(which would be hard to believe), you'd wonder what's that white building you see on the hill almost from everywhere in the town centre. Acropolis means upper city and there are many all around Greece but the one in Athens is definitly the most popular. You can easily arrive at Acropolis using the underground or having a nice walk from Plaka. It's open from 8 to19 (from april to october) and from 8 to 17(from november to march). The 12€ ticket allows you also to visit: ancent Agorà, Roman agorà, hadrian library, Zeus temple and Dyoniso's theater, theater where dramas of Sofocle, Eschilo and Euripide were played.

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The Acropolis is the hill that the buildings were constructed on. The Propylaea was the entrance area for the temples, and served as a gateway. Processions would have passed through it. The Athena Nike temple is a small square building with 4 front columns. It has been reconstructed, using a lighter color stone for the new parts.

The Parthenon has 8 columns on each short side, and 17 each on the long side (but the corners were counted twice.) The columns are wider at the bottom, and they lean slightly inward to add strength. Temple entrances are always on the east side because it provides more light. The lion heads on the long sides are water spouts. The marble came from a hill a little over 10 miles away. Slaves did the hauling, but the craftsmen were free citizens. Construction took 7 years.

Most of the destruction took place in the 17th Century. The Christians destroyed the outside sculptures around that time, and the building was blown up when the Turks stored gunpowder in it in 1687 and someone shot a cannonball.

The Erechtheion is a temple dedicated to Athena and Poseidon, and it has symbols of both. The porch of the Caryatids is part of the Erechtheion, and the statues were used in place of pillars. The Caryatids represent beauty (the women from Karyai were supposed to be the most beautiful in Greece.) The statues there now are copies. One of the originals is in the British Museum. The other five Caryatids are in the new Acropolis Museum.

From the Acropolis you can look down at two ancient theaters. The Dionysus Theater (4th Century BC) is one of the oldest, and seated 17,000 people. The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a Roman theater from the 2nd Century AD. It seats 5,000, and is still used for summer theater. The ruins of the Agora (the ancient marketplace) are at the base of the Acropolis. There are some massive walls on one side of the hill—this fortress was built in the 6th Century BC, and the Athenians fought the Persians from the top of it.

The path to the top goes steadily up and up, and was a difficult climb for me. (Getting back down was worse!) It was well worth the struggle.

Open daily, 8-7:30 Ticket package – 12 euro